Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Tell me about your handgun's tactical light

So if this is just a bedside gun, you might think about when you'd use it (i.e. woken up in the middle of the night, etc) and how much light you really want in those circumstances.

I don't claim to be any sort of tactical expert, but I do know that when I get up in the night, a bright 800 or 1000 lumen light is a bit much, especially indoors with white walls in the house. A milder light seems to be plenty for me. That's not the popular trend, but is what I've found works for me.

Of course, keep in mind that a lot of flashlights (especially the chinese stuff) have ridiculous high lumen value claims on what are really 80-100 lumen lights, so that might skew your frame of reference if you're basing it on that.

There is never a scenario where too much light is a detriment. Again, it is glaringly obvious who has had to use a weapon light in any real capacity, and who has thought about it.

Riiight....

I'd love to use a weapon light, but as a non-LEO the liability is too much of a concern - I don't get to point my gun at people and then say, "nevermind". As such, a good ol' handheld flashlight works just dandy.

How is a strobe light going to help you? I really see no use for a strobe unless you are lost and hope it’s use will be seen by rescuers.

The hope is that the muzzle flashes from the bad guy's strobe-induced magazine dump will cause him to have a seizure.

Because they strobe on both ends. The Supreme Court has described situations like this as "tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving". There's nothing about a situation that's tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving that is made better with a light that's flickering on and off. In fact, in scary movies when they want to make everything worse, or in haunted houses when they want to make something moderately intense seem terrifying, they just add strobe lights.

When things are at the worst in the dark and you're having to make a decision to shoot someone or not what you need is to SEE and SEE everything you can as well as you can. Strobes don't help that at all.

In a word, I don't like strobes because they STROBE. Ask yourself, if you had to be stuck in a room with someone, decide if they were good or bad, and then make the hardest shot of your life--Would you rather have the lights off, on, or flickering?

I agree 100% with the fatheroflily.

Yes, if you put your face 6" from a white wall and pop the light directly in front of your face, it will be very bright. So don't do that. (If you find yourself dealing with a bad guy and you're staring at a wall from 6", you're gonna lose anyway.)

In theory, it's a problem. In actual practice, it's just not a big deal. What is a big deal is not being able to see and discriminate. The brighter and higher quality your light is, the better you can do that.

The other side of that coin is the liability associated with shooting the wrong person because you couldn't discriminate well enough in the dark....or having to make the hardest shot of your life with one hand because you're holding a flashlight in the other.

There's liability involved in all of it. I'd opt for the liability that also keeps me and everybody else the safest.

ive always felt that anyone who thought a strobe feature was a good idea has probably watched too many movies

i cant argue or really add to anything that Blue has said.

I went to the light and felt warm and peaceful the perp said, while being interviewed by St. Peter. 😜

You do realize that you can use the light to identify the target without actually pointing the gun at someone.....right?

So, you've never got up in the middle of the night and experienced that feeling of the lights being too bright for the first few minutes so it's hard to see? Have you ever got up in the night and shined a really bright flashlight around the room right away? The claim that there's no such thing as too much light is just as ridiculous as claiming a moderate amount of light isn't enough to see your target, inside your own house. It's also ridiculous to pretend that anybody who hasn't been shot at by bad guys also hasn't used a flashlight in the dark.

The OP already clarified that he's asking about a nightstand gun, implying it'd mostly be used reactively at night. That's a whole different application than being some sort of LEO/mil door kicker, or even CC. You're a reasonable guy generally, so I bet you understand the difference.

For inside your home, consider a DC powered independent security lighting system. Mine is outdated technologically, with it's first generation LEDs that are nearing 25 yrs old. Still useful and reliable, but any system I replaced it with today will be easier, cheaper and probably more reliable.

I now have 3 control points, 2 of which are shielded by internal wall hardpoints.

This all seemed a bit over the top til we had our first neighborhood swat raid last spring. Seems the new nearest neighbor runs and does "business" with the wrong crowd.

This summer I put in all new external motion activated security lighting on the outside as well. The outdoor system has no independent power source, and critters even the size of a coon can be a nuisance, but it gives some peace of mind.

Nobody said anything about being shot at.

Sounds like what the OP needs is to just hook up one of those clapper things in his house so e can turn the lights on from bed, or motion sensor switches in the other rooms. Couple that with dimmer switches and he can have light at whatever brightness he wants.

Frankly, that's ridiculous. Right, I'll respond to a threat without actually pointing a flashlight at things that are in the dark.

Regardless, it still can be considered brandishing. As a non-LEO my handgun has to stay concealed until the situation warrants.

I have a feeling that I know a lot about things that you think you know a little about, but I could be wrong.

id suggest a bit more research. and yes Lilysdad is absolutely spot on

'Strobes' give me Disco Fever - And I'd rather spend time with 'bad girls' in the dark!

It's 2018 and every person who is seriously using a gun to deal with bad guys in the dark has a light on it. And the lights, even when used inside buildings that contain white walls and mirrors, are made by Surefire or Streamlight and have between 800-1000 lumens.

Now if folks don't want a light then by golly they shouldn't have one. But don't pretend that you've got something figured out that every professional on the Earth doesn't.